Castres (AFP)

Castres has largely won at home against Toulon (46-24) but sees his dream of the final phase fail after the success of the Stade Français in Bayonne (12-9) which deprives the Castres of a place in the Top 6, Saturday on the occasion of the last day of the championship.

Despite this eighth consecutive home success since the start of 2021, the CO finished the season in seventh place in the championship and could long curse his nightmarish start to the season which deprived him of a place in the Top 6, a level that he hasn't visited since 2018.

Little consolation for the Castres: they will play well in the European Cup next season thanks to this seventh victory in their last eight games.

On the other hand, it is a terrible disillusionment for the Var who fail in eighth place in the Top 14 and will therefore only compete in the European Challenge.

Beaten for the fourth time in a row away from home without taking a single point, Patrice Collazo's men missed their goal and the situation could become explosive in the harbor.

Everything had started badly for the Castres led 17-0 after a little more than twenty minutes, thanks in particular to ten points from Louis Carbonnel.

A fanfare start but a flash in the pan very quickly extinguished by the Castresian fury.

The tide began to turn with the injury of Toulon captain Charles Ollivon, hit in the knee and forced to leave within a quarter of an hour of play. The Var were then reduced to fourteen after the yellow card of their hooker Anthony Etrillard (33) .

A godsend for the supercharged Tarnese, who in less than a quarter of an hour made up their delay thanks to Gaëtan Barlot then Benjamin Urdapilleta to join the locker room with a score of parity (17-17).

Pure Castres, the center Thomas Combezou then allowed his team to take the advantage for the first time in the match (44) before a double from Urdapilleta offered a substantial mattress to his teammates (31-17, 49).

An advantage perfectly managed in the second half by Tarnais who fulfilled their part of the contract, even going to seek the point of the offensive bonus in the last seconds.

But unfortunately for them, their fate was played out in Bayonne.

© 2021 AFP